Topic Contents

Metronidazole for Crohn's disease

Examples

How It Works

Metronidazole, an antibiotic, destroys
certain bacteria, which may help control infection and inflammation in the
intestines.

Why It Is Used

Metronidazole may be used to:

Treat infections that develop because of
Crohn's disease, especially when
abscesses, abnormal connections (fistulas) between two parts of the intestines, or
holes in the intestines or anal area occur.

Treat active disease.
Metronidazole may help with symptoms when aminosalicylates do
not.

Keep symptoms of Crohn's disease from coming back after
surgery.

How Well It Works

Studies have shown that metronidazole
can be effective in keeping symptoms of Crohn's disease from coming back after
surgery.1

Other studies have shown that
metronidazole relieved symptoms of Crohn's disease, especially in the colon.
For some people, it worked better than sulfasalazine.2
But antibiotics don't work as well after you take them for a long time, and
some people have severe side effects. Metronidazole is not used very often to
treat Crohn's disease for the long term or to keep the disease in
remission (a period without symptoms).

Metronidazole may be used in combination with other antibiotics or other
medicines.

Tingling or numbness in the
fingers and toes (peripheral neuropathy) can happen with long-term use.

See Drug Reference for a full list of side effects. (Drug Reference is
not available in all systems.)

What To Think About

Some experts think that infectious
organisms such as bacteria may play a role in the development of inflammatory
bowel diseases. But this has not yet been proved. Intestinal infections can
cause flare-ups of Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis.

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